SAN JOSE, Calif. – While his slugfests have won him wide appeal and a loyal fan following, Stephan Bonnar’s ground game carried him to his latest victory.

The veteran light heavyweight used solid clinch work and a smothering and active ground game to earn a unanimous-decision victory over Kyle Kingsbury.

The fight kicked off UFC 139’s pay-per-view main card following prelims on Facebook and Spike TV.

Bonnar simply shut down Kingsbury’s offense.

Much of the first round was spent in the clinch, and both fighters did damage with elbows and knees. Late in the round, after scoring a toss-takedown, Bonnar landed in side control, moved to mount, and rained down punches that were cut short by the horn.

In the second, after briefly taking his opponent’s back and transitioning to a single-leg takedown, Bonnar took top position, moved to side control, delivered punches and continually looked for submissions for the remainder of the round.

After an early takedown in the third round, Bonnar’s dominance continued. His position of choice was side control, and he battered Kingsbury with short punches and elbows to the head and body. Bonnar also remained active and continually looked for chokes and arm submissions. He didn’t get the finish, but it was a truly dominating performance.

In the end, he earned the unanimous decision via 30-27, 30-25 and 30-27 scores. Inexplicably, he received more than a few boos.

“I’m not used to fans booing my fights, but it’s hard to get wins in here,” Bonnar said. “I wanted to bang it out and see if I could get it to the ground and submit him.”

After the fight, Bonnar said he planned to call out budding rival (and welterweight) Josh Koscheck, with whom he’s discussed a possible meeting at middleweight following a sour business deal. But Bonnar instead apologized to Koscheck and took full responsibility for the T-shirt deal that caused the hard feelings.

Bonnar (14-7 MMA, 8-6 UFC) now has won three straight fights since a disastrous three-bout skid from 2009-2010. Kingsbury (11-3 MMA, 4-2 UFC) snaps a four-fight win streak that had him in title talk.

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